Life of Fire by Pat Martin

Life of Fire

by Pat Martin

“The most important book on cooking over live fire in decades. Life of Fire illuminates it all, from coal beds, to home-built pits (in minutes!) to simple, delicious, recipes and enough whole hog know-how to impress the weekend warriors without intimidating newcomers.”—Andrew Zimmern

ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR: Saveur

One of the few pitmasters still carrying the torch of West Tennessee whole-hog barbecue, Nashville’s Pat Martin has studied and taught this craft for years. Now he reveals all he knows about the art of barbecue and live fire cooking. 

Through beautiful photography and detailed instruction, the lessons start with how to prepare and feed a fire—what wood to use, how to build a pit or a grill, how to position it to account for the weather—then move into cooking through all the stages of that fire’s life. You’ll sear tomatoes for sandwiches and infuse creamed corn with the flavor of char from the temperamental, adolescent fire. Next, you’ll grill chicken with Alabama white sauce over the grown-up fire, and, of course, you’ll master pit-cooked whole hog, barbecue ribs, turkey, pork belly, and pork shoulder over the smoldering heat of mature coals. Finally, you’ll roast vegetables buried in white ash, and you’ll smoke bacon and country hams in the dying embers of the winter fire. 

For Pat Martin, grilling, barbecuing, and smoking is a whole lifetime’s worth of practice and pleasure—a life of fire that will transform the way you cook.

Reviewed by annieb123 on

5 of 5 stars

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Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Life of Fire is a tutorial and cookbook for live fire cooking pit-fired barbecue, grilling, and smoking foods with recipes by Pat Martin and Nick Fauchald. Released 15th March 2022 from Penguin Random House on their Ten Speed Press imprint, it's 320 pages and will be available in hardcover, spiral bound, and ebook formats.

This is a very well written and graphically appealing ode to open fire cooking. The authors write accessibly and clearly about the subject. It's very clear from the first page that they have the requisite expertise and knowledge and the included recipes are a lot more than just pulled pork sandwiches (though they are to be found here as well), and this is one of the few barbecue books I've seen which thoroughly discusses cooking whole animals and ash/ember cooking.

The introduction covers materials choice, building, maintaining, and containing fires, sourcing wood, safety issues and more. The following chapters delve in depth on everything from game birds to roasting a whole hog. The recipes are scattered throughout the book. Each has an introduction, bullet list of ingredients on the right side of the page and general prep and cooking instructions. Recipe ingredient measures are given in imperial (American) units. Most ingredients will be easy to find in local grocery stores. The authors have included resources and links lists for sourcing large cuts of meats, specialty equipment, rubs, and sauces (for readers who prefer to buy them).

The book is absolutely *full* of beautiful photography, including action shots of prepping and cooking as well as atmospheric landscape shots. The food is appealing and appetizing and never overstyled or frou-frou.

Five stars. Definitely book on barbecue and live fire cooking. There are a number of really good dessert recipes here as well, in addition to the comprehensive barbecue. Highly recommended for library acquisition, homesteaders, grill-lovers, and home cooks.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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